Chapter 12
A second passed by and soon stretched into a minute. Five minutes later and Camie was still biting her thumb, wracking her brain for a decent response.
Just send a response dammit! You’re making her wait.
‘Hi’
Camie typed out the two letter word, hit send and immediately regretted every decision she had ever made in life.
Hi? That’s the best I could come up with? Breathe Camie; just breathe. You can do this, take a step back and think for a little before making your next move.
Camie mentally gave herself a small pep talk trying to ease the terrible feeling that had settled in her stomach. The feeling had brought a wave of nausea with it and Camie knew that if she didn’t calm down soon she would be racing to the bathroom shortly.
Finally, with her breathing under control she managed to send a follow up message.
‘I’m glad you messaged me, I was beginning to think that you weren’t going to.’
The message stayed unread and soon, unable to wait for it to be read, Camie fell asleep. Her phone lay on her pillow next to her head, the screen light getting dull due to inactivity. Just before it turned off completely it was brought back to full brightness when a reply from Toga came through.
Camie was mentally kicking herself while she hit her head with the palm of her hand the next morning. She had woken up to find that her phone was almost dead and she would have to leave it on charge while she went to school. Even worse, she had left the message from Toga open so when the new message came through it had looked as if she had read and ignored the message.
‘Why did you think that?’
Why did I have to fall asleep then? If only I had toughed it out a minute longer! I should try and explain it; hopefully she didn’t think I was ignoring her.
‘Sorry I fell asleep last night.’
‘It’s just that I wasn’t getting a message from you and I thought that I had come off as controlling and forceful so I assumed you didn’t want anything to do with me after that.’
She quickly sent the message before placing her phone on charge and with great reluctance, left it in her room as she left. Camie raced down the stairs and quickly sat down at the table, her speed startled both of her parents but before they could say anything she leapt up from her seat.
That message seemed weird maybe I should delete it and resend another one. It took me so long to type out this one that if I try rewording it I’ll end up being late for school. Would an emoji work?
She raced back upstairs and sent the monkey emoji with its hands covering its eyes before she locked her phone and sped back downstairs. She sat down at the table long enough to shovel two mouthfuls into her mouth before mumbling that she was late and excused herself. Inasa was waiting just outside the door with his arm raised as Camie threw the front door open. Both teenagers jumped back in surprise.
“I was going to go ahead in the car but thought I’d just check if you were coming today,” Inasa tried to explain himself.
Camie nodded, “We’re late so might as well take the car anyway.”
She grabbed his wrist as she closed the door and ran down the street towards his car. Inasa was half-following her and half-dragged by her as they made their way over. They got in hurriedly and luckily enough the traffic wasn’t that bad and they managed to make it to school on time for their first class. Due to the morning rush, Inasa was unable to notice but as the day went on he realised that Camie was acting extremely impatient.
She was constantly bouncing her leg up and down as she sat listening to the teachers talk. No, listening was an understatement, the girl was completely restless. She was looking towards the front of the class but her eyes were glazed over and she seemed to be concentrating on whatever was on her mind. Her on hand was flat on the desk, her pointer finger quietly tapping the wood as her other hand moved almost instinctively as she scribbled on the page of her open work book. Luckily she had a pencil in her hand and Inasa didn’t see the need to stop her since she could just erase the markings. Each time the bell signalled the end of a class, Camie would fumble around in her pockets before she realised that she had left her phone at home. She would then proceed to stare at the clock on the wall, watching as the time passed slowly.
Finally the school day ended and their extra training lessons with the school started. The entire hero programme was scheduled to train today and as Inasa got closer to the gym after changing, Camie exited. She was still in her school uniform and a smile was starting to form on her face.
“Where’re you going?” Inasa asked as he walked up to her.
“I told the teacher that I wasn’t feeling well, so I have permission to go home and rest.”
Inasa watched as Camie walked off and only turned to enter the gym after she had disappeared from sight. He silently repeated his drivers advise as a reminder that he shouldn’t pry into her life or choices and to wait until she was ready to talk.
Camie got home and went straight to her phone and saw that she had one message from Toga.
‘I waited until everyone was asleep before I messaged you, that’s why it was so late.”
Oh, maybe they all spend time together before everyone goes to bed. If that’s the case she’ll probably message late again tonight, maybe I should actually take a nap so I won’t fall asleep again tonight.
“Camie, wake up dear.” Her mother’s voice stirred Camie from sleep, “Why are you home so early?”
“I wasn’t feeling well, so I came home to rest after class.”
Her mother’s expression changed from worry to shock, “Should we go to the doctor? You can skip school tomorrow. Do you have a fever?”
Camie waved her mother’s hand away from her forehead, “I’m feeling much better now after my nap.”
Her mother nodded and started to walk out of the room, “Stay in bed, I’ll bring your food to you.”
Once her mother had left, Camie opened Toga’s message which she hadn’t managed to respond to since she didn’t know what to say at the moment. After thinking for a minute she decided to change the subject and at the same time expand their contact.
‘Are you free this weekend?’